Spider-Man: Homecoming

I love this third iteration of Spider-Man. It had the right amount of humor and action. We get to see the beginnings of the Parker Luck as Peter has to make choices about doing things with his friends or patrolling as Spider-Man. The Vulture is way more sympathetic than I thought he would be.

I tried to go into this with my expectations lowered, but recently re-watching Civil War took that notion away. Thankfully my high expectations were met and exceeded.

Plus – no origin story! We do not have to live through Uncle Ben dying and imparting the life lesson on Peter. At most, we get Peter telling someone that he was bit by a spider. That’s it.

Mid-Credits scene was good. But the after credits scene is a game changer for the MCU.

Starring: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Bokeem Woodbine, Kenneth Choi

Vía Letterboxd – AngryTownsman

Captain America: Civil War

Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Daniel Brühl

Blu-ray


DVD


After a terrible accident in Lagos with civilian casualties (on top of the events in Age of Ultron), Tony Stark and the UN come up with a charter for the Avengers. A charter that would make them answer to the UN and only be deployed where the UN deems necessary. Most of the members sign the form, except Cap, Falcon and Scarlet Witch. When there is a bombing at a UN meeting, the world begins a massive manhunt for the Winter Soldier. We get to see a bit of Winter Soldier’s 90s career with Hydra when he goes after a couple in a car and retrieves something that looks like the Super Soldier formula.

The military going after Bucky are given the orders to shoot to kill. Cap is most definitely against this and attempts to bring him in alive. Firmly putting him against the world governments, Tony Stark, and the other Avengers. Plus Black Panther. Unfortunately, T’Chala’s father was killed in the UN bombing. With this, we get Black Panther also going after Bucky.

We get a nice little chase sequence that ends with Bucky, Cap, Falcon and Black Panther being brought into custody. Zemo makes his way in and activates some Hydra programming left in Bucky. Zemo slips out and Bucky escapes after giving Zemo a debriefing. Cap and Falcon also make it out in pursuit of Bucky.

As a result of this, Iron Man and Cap begin recruiting among their friends for a showdown. Giving us the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduction of Spider-Man.

TL;DR Go see it. This is how you do a superhero movie with a lot of characters in it.

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Iron Man

Saw Iron Man this weekend. Awesome. I have never been a big fan of Robert Downey Jr, but he delivers in this one. The story is faithful in spirit to the comics and tells an excellent origin story.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark a wealthy industrialist whose company primarily develops weapons. He gets kidnapped and made to create a weapon for a terrorist group. Instead he creates his first suit of armor and trashed them and escapes. This is not a quick part of the movie either. They really go into details here and give Tony an understanding of just what use his weapons have been put to. When he eventually gets back to the US he holds a press conference and announces to the world that Stark Industries is out of the weapons business. Obadiah Stane, Tony’s partner, clearly does not like this and convinces Tony to keep out of the limelight for a time, while he spins this in a positive direction. In seclusion at his home, Tony begins working on an improved suit. Eventually getting it right and heading back to the middle east and destroying a cache of weapons the terrorist group has. We learn that Stane was working with the terrorists to kill Tony and he has been supplying them with weapons. Stane gets ahold of Tony’s first suit of armor and creates his Iron Monger suit. Then we get a nice confrontation between Iron Man and the Iron Monger.

Pros: Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark, Pepper, Happy Hogan, Obadiah Stane, Jim Rhodes, the Iron Man armor (all versions), the action sequences

Cons: Computer AI Jarvis. The only negative aspect of this movie. Jarvis is not a flesh and blood servant, but an AI construct.

I can say this movie gets a rating of 8.5 out of 10. To put this in perspective, Spider-Man gets a 9 out of 10, Spider-Man 2 gets a 9.5 and Spider-Man 3 gets a 5. X-Men 1 gets a 7, X-Men 2 gets a 8 and X-Men3 gets a 2.

Go see this movie now! And stay after the credits for a scene capper that helps setup a future Avengers movie.

I am really looking forward to the Incredible Hulk movie coming out June 13th.